Porterfield eyes Australia scalp

Ireland opening batsman William Porterfield knows Wednesday's opening ICC World Twenty20 match against Australia will be tough but he fancies the underdogs' chances.

England beat Australia by nine runs in their warm-up game while Ireland triumphed over Bangladesh by five runs, ahead of Wednesday's Group B clash in Colombo.

"Irish cricket has been evolving for the past number of years and in the last five years we have been growing," Porterfield said. "We think we've got a good as chance as any [against Australia]. We're coming up against a team that is going through a bit of transition themselves but they're a good team. We're not taking them lightly at all."

He added: "We want to get wins more regularly and this tournament is no different and that starts tomorrow.

"They have a lot of lads who are game-changers especially in this format of the game, but the way we've been playing, we've prepared for this tournament and we're confident in what we can do and we're just looking after our game really."

Despite Australia's defeat at the hands of defending World t20 champions England, Porterfield knows Ireland will face a side packed with experience.

"They won in their last game [before England] against Pakistan so they cannot be taken lightly," Porterfield said. "To do that against Pakistan, you've got a good team.

"A lot of their players and a lot of their coaches are involved the the IPL [Indian Premier League] so that will give them a lot of experience in Twenty20 cricket in their off-season."

Trent Johnston, Ireland's Australian-born all-rounder, would love to kick off the tournament with a win and is confident Ireland's preparation has gone to plan.

He said: "The guys have worked hard in the nets and on their fitness in the run-up to this tour so we like to think we're 100% ready and raring to go for tomorrow. We've got our plans for them but they've got quality players all the way through and we know we will have to be at our best if we are to cause an upset. We're very capable of doing that."